Swadeshi Jagran Manch alleges Amazon, Flipkart bypassing FDI regulations

Swadeshi Jagran Manch has accused Amazon of giving preferential treatment to a select group of sellers, including Cloudtail and Appario to hurt small retailers bypassing Indian FDI Regulations. The outfit alleged that Amazon mined data from its own sellers to launch competitive products and brands such as Solimo and Amazon Basics.

New Delhi: The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) demanded all permissions given to e-commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart-Walmart to operate in India be withdrawn and all their activities be declared illegal. The demands were put forth during its 15th Rashtriya Sabha held in Gwalior.

The organisation has alleged that multinational e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Walmart/Flipkart blatantly contravene and operate uncontrolled in India. SJM argues that aggressive marketing tactics by these e-commerce giants are hurting local businesses.

"Its well known that Amazon and Flipkart hold 80% of online space. Discounts offered by them are adversely impacting offline markets also. They are luring customers by offering high discounts, advertising aggressively to communicate such offers to the general public. Public is attracted to them more for discount than the convenience. This trend is adversely impacting the neighbourhood shops and kirana stores. Along with this, people engaged in wholesale and transport sector are also getting adversely affected by e-commerce giants," said Ashwini Mahajan, Convener of Swadeshi Jagran Manch.

SJM has accused Amazon of giving preferential treatment to a select group of sellers, including Cloudtail and Appario, to hurt small retailers bypassing Indian FDI Regulations. The outfit alleged that Amazon mined data from its own sellers to launch competitive products and brands such as Solimo and Amazon Basics.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is another operation being carried by Amazon in India to exploit the retailers by charging very heavy fees in the garb of helping them in improving their presence on e-marketplace, the SJM alleged.

SJM further alleged that Amazon compels small suppliers to hold a substantial 'minimum quantity' of their range of products at its fulfilment centres, resulting in very high inventory costs for vendors.

"Amazon in India has became so powerful that it can pick winners or losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers and put employees out of work. Working conditions for workers are the worst in fulfilment centres (warehouses) where they are forced to work for long hours without reasonable rest," Ashwini Mahajan said.

Mahajan claimed that for every job the e-commerce giants create, they are destroying 10 others.

Explaining the modus operandi of giant e-commerce companies, the SJM convener said that companies like Amazon meet with startups with the proposal to invest, then launch competing products which is highly detrimental to the growth of those startups as well as the culture of entrepreneurship in the country.

Accusing the e-commerce companies of bribery, Mahajan alleged that "all licenses and permissions obtained by such companies were obtained fraudulently using unfair means."

The organisation has demanded an investigation by CBI, saying, "as soon as there is a trace of the government officers including people sitting in the high offices, gaining from these companies, directly or indirectly, they should be sent on leave to facilitate fair investigation of the whole matter; and be punished for their offences."